Ridge Racer

Bugbear's Ridge Racer Unbounded has been pushed back until the end of March, Namco Bandai have confirmed. The game is now due on Friday, 30th March, with a statement given to EG explaining that "the development team felt they needed a little bit of extra time to optimise the game".

The game is something of a move away from Ridge Racer's traditional arcade racing roots, with Bugbear incorporating elements of the gameplay seen in their FlatOut series as well as channelling something of a Burnout feel. You can check out Jon's Ridge Racer Unbounded preview here.

Well this is a bit worrying. According to a couple of Japanese previews from Impress Watch and Famitsu, the Vita title Ridge Racer will apparently only come with 5 cars and 3 tracks from which to choose.

Here's another opportunity to buckle in, put your keys in the ignition, get into gear, and screech over the starting line as your foot smashes the accelerator to the floor.

NB. Remember to use the code FTSL15-1, if you haven't already done so, in order to get the game for £4.25.

You can grab a copy of the game for £4.25 from Tesco Entertainment if you've not already grabbed the opportunity to use their promotional code, but if you have you can still get your hands on it for the reasonable price of £5.00. That means that with the code you'll be making a saving of over £5.50 on the next best offer of £9.99 from Game, and almost £5.00 without it.

Compared to the majority of modern racers that have been released recently, Ridge Racer 7's list of only 40 cars is pretty laughable. Luckily there's a much greater range of tracks, totalling 22 in all, and these can be played in either forward, reverse, or mirror mode, which definitely helps to increase variety.

The cars are all outfitted with a generous helping of nitrous to help boost you into the lead, however your best bet for propelling yourself to first place'll be to master drifting and I can't help but think that maybe the game should have been called Drift Racer 7 due to the amount you'll be using the trusty manoeuvre.

If you're looking for a game with realistic driving physics then you're best off going somewhere else because they've been sacrificed in favour of fun, high speed racing, where you'll need to be just as proficient at weaving your way around the other players as you are at tearing round the track at top speed.

Fans of the sleek, slick, larger-than-life gameplay of the Ridge Racer series will find a lot to sink their teeth into with the seventh addition to the franchise. Currently the game is available for just £6.99 from HMV – an offer which, according to price comparison, is a massive £13.78 cheaper than the next best deal going on simply games.

Ridge Racer has to be one of the most enduring of any racing game series. However, anyone unfamiliar with its unique style of gameplay, and who is after something to satisfy their yearning for wanton destruction and high speed smash ups, would do better to look towards the Burnout series. The emphasis of Ridge Racer is more upon high speed, and the game requires players to master the art of ‘drifting’, an element which veteran Ridge Racer players will be well used to, but one which can be highly ambiguous for beginners.

The idea is that as you enter a corner – doing something like 200mph– you momentarily release the accelerator as you begin to turn and then, after pressing it back down again, send your car sliding through the corner. The idea is to make sure you are facing the right direction when traction eventually returns to your ‘machine’. The game also offers players the chance to select the type of ‘drift’ which they want for their particular cars, varying from mild to dynamic.

Beginners may not find themselves falling for Ridge Racer on their very first go, but experienced players will find that the new features offered by RR7 (loads more customization options, slipstreaming) makes it one the most evolutionary sequels in the series.

Thanks to Appello from Hotukdeals.

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